Hearing set to remove judge from Athens cop-killer case

Attorneys representing accused cop-killer Jamie Hood will argue in Clarke County Superior Court this month that the judge presiding over the death penalty case should be removed.

A hearing has been scheduled for April 25, when attorneys from the Georgia Capital Defender Office will insist that Western Judicial Circuit Chief Judge Lawton Stephens be removed because he is too close to one of the two officers that Hood shot.

Superior Court Judge David Sweat is scheduled to hear arguments April 25 from prosecuting and defense attorneys before deciding if Stephens can remain on the case.

They were shot as officers searched for Hood, who was a suspect in an armed robbery-kidnapping.

Stephens has presided over the case since August, when Hood was arraigned for the double-cop shooting and a host of other crimes, including the murder of a man in December 2010, armed robbery, and several kidnappings.

District Attorney Ken Mauldin has filed notice he plans to seek the death penalty if Hood is convicted.

Stephens disclosed at a preliminary hearing in October that he's known Howard and his family for many years and that even though he didn't know Christian, he attended the slain officer's funeral.

"I don't think any of that would prevent me or impair me from presiding in this case, but I wanted to make sure y'all understood that, in the event that y'all felt like it was an issue that you wanted to raise," Stephens said during the hearing.

Hood's attorneys didn't object at the time to Stephens remaining on the case, but Hood raised the issue himself during a March 12 court hearing in which Stephens was to begin considering dozens of pretrial defense motions.

"I feel like you (are) really too close to Tony Howard to make the right decision toward Jamie Hood," Hood told the judge during the hearing.

Stephens abruptly halted further proceedings to give Hood's attorneys time to file a formal motion to have him removed as judge from the case, which they did March 23.

That same day, Stephens issued an order that asked for another judge to decide the matter, and Clarke County Clerk of Courts Beverly Logan assigned the case to Sweat.

In advance of the hearing to decide whether Stephens must recuse himself from the Hood case, Sweat made disclosures of his own.

Sweat never had any contact with Christian, either personally or professionally, though he attended the officer's funeral along with other officials and offered condolences to Christian's wife, Sweat said in the disclosure he filed Friday with the court clerk's office.

Sweat also attended a special service at Howard's church after the officer was released from the hospital.

"(I) exchanged a greeting with Tony Howard lasting the duration of a handshake, the content of which was a brief comment on his recent release from the hospital," Sweat wrote.

Though Howard may have testified as a witness once or twice in court cases that Sweat presided over, the judge has "no recollection of any other past contact with Tony Howard in any personal, professional, or other capacity," Sweat wrote.